True Blood 2x12 Review
Jun. 7th, 2010 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaBeyond Here Lies Nothing
For a finale this was very... low key. It felt more like the wrapping up of loose ends then the climax/conclusion to a series long mystery that began at the end of the previous season. It did not feel like a finale. To be honest it was a bit disappointing
• For me the most interesting parts of this episode were learning more about Sookie, not that we learned a lot. But what happened between Sookie and Maryann was interesting and gave hints, and the discussion between Eric and Sophie-Anne has implications that are even more intriguing. First, both agree that Sookie isn’t human, though not entirely on how much she’s not. This is interesting because I have been thinking of Sookie as... well, like a human psychic. I love the idea of her being something other. With Maryann I got the sense the first time I watched that she didn’t consider Sookie human at all (anymore than she would herself). She tells Sookie “You’re definitely beyond human.” This is because – “I live off human energy and yours I can’t channel.” She acknowledges that there are others like that – shifters – is the implication, but we know that shifters can become hers, her familiars, as seen by Daphne, and we’ve seen that she does have power over them. I assume weres are similar. We don’t know about her affect on vampires – we don’t see her take over Bill but then she never actually tries. She certainly knows what he is from the start and she also knows that her blood will poison him. Can she do something to vampire’s like she does to shifters? But then you’d think she’d have used that, Bill, against Sookie. In any case, Sookie is definitely less human that shifters because Maryann had no power over her. Then we get this discussion between Eric and Sophie-Anne:
Sophie-Anne: You know I think he is monogamous with his human.
Eric: He is in love with her, yes.
Sophie-Anne: Well, of course he would be with her. You probably are too.
Eric: I do not love humans.
Sophie-Anne: She is not entirely human. (pause) Have you tasted her?
Eric: Sadly, no.
Sophie-Anne: Don’t. Ever. One vampire falling in love is bad enough.
First, to get it out of the way, you have Sophie-Anne calling Sookie ‘not entirely’ human which implies she is human in some part. This is a bit different from the conclusion I got from Maryann (as stated above). So which is it?
Second, Sophie-Anne knows what Sookie is! This implies to me that those vampires at the top of the vampire hierarchy know about Sookie’s kind. I can’t wait to learn more about this. Do they keep Sookie’s kind in their courts, or are they avoided like the maenads? Obviously the higher vampires, higher in rank, are secretive about Sookie’s species because Eric didn’t and doesn’t know what she is.
Third, and the most important implication here, are things between Sophie-Anne’s words. ‘Of course’ Bill would love Sookie, and her assumption that Eric loves her too, and then at the end forbidding Eric to ever taste her and the implication in all of that – that vampires are drawn to Sookie’s kind, that they can’t help themselves... that their blood draws vampires in even more and makes them fall in love. Huh. Sophie-Anne was not surprised that Bill was in love with Sookie, in fact it was only to be expected, and that Eric who also spent time with her would also be under her spell. And that if he wasn’t in love with her then it was only because he hadn’t drunk her blood, and if he did ever do that he would fall in love with her.
I think at this point all worry about the Sookie/Bill relationship has been for Sookie but I’m kind of wondering if we shouldn’t have been worrying for Bill as well. In 2x09 Eric tricks Sookie into ingesting her blood and then we, and her, learn that the bond when doing that is much more potent than we knew; binding the two together. Now we’ve learned, kind of, that Sookie’s blood has its own properties. Oh I really want to know what those are. We know she tastes different (her kind do) from humans. Now I find myself wondering what effects it would have on vampires.
I’ve actually been thinking that things have been moving too fast for Sookie and Bill but then brushed it off because everything has been moving too fast. Hell, in two seasons something like only two or three months have passed. How would that really be enough time for anyone to fall in love and yet most/all the relationships have had their entirety in these two months – Bill/Sookie – but also Tara/Eggs, Terry/Arlene, Jason/Amy... everyone seemed to fall in love with someone the first week they meet them. But this is a problem with the format of the series. We really need bigger lapses between episodes. With this new information about Sookie it at least gives more reason to why she and Bill fell so quickly for each other at least. Their loneliness, her gift, the silence he gives her, the compassion and trust she gives him, his blood bonding them and making him even more attractive to her, and now her blood making her more attractive to him.
• I wonder if, or perhaps how long, Eric will listen to Sophie-Anne’s order not to drink Sookie’s blood?
• I was not at all expecting Bill to propose to Sookie. I mean it’s been two months since they’ve met! For someone who is immortal he sure moves fast. I couldn’t help but feel like he was asking her to marry him in order to solidify his claim on her against Eric (and any other vampire). It was actually my first thought when he asked her. But – he does love her, and she loves him. I think I’ll be really surprised if it actually happens.
• “I’ve never felt anything like it. It was like nature was shooting out from your fingertips.” – Maryann. Hmm.
• I really thought that Sookie would end up using her new glowy hand ability to defeat or banish Maryann but we didn’t get anything like that. When Sookie tried she couldn’t make herself do it again and then when it did happen it was when she pushed over Maryann’s offering. It doesn’t seem to be something dangerous. I can’t wait to learn more about it. And everything else she might be able to do. I loved that we got a flashback to Mack and the chain – it wasn’t forgotten! Hopefully that means that we’ll be seeing something similar next season.
• I’m not actually happy with how they dealt with Maryann. I wish instead of being killed, though I knew it was coming after Sophie-Anne brought up a way to potentially do it, they’d just found a way to banish her, or perhaps trick her into believing her ritual didn’t work so that she ended up leaving herself, disappointed.
• Sam and Bill’s plan was so, so bad. Both the other victims of Maryann’s had their hearts carved out of their chest – if she’d continued as she’d started and had his heart carved out there would have been nothing Bill could have done for him, and there was no indication that she wouldn’t be carving his heart out too. They knew this! Stupid plan.
• It was nice to see some of Eric’s grief over Godric’s death.
• I thought Bill had made a mistake when he threatened Eric with exposure in the previous episode, and the fact that he did it right outside the Queen’s front door seemed pretty stupid, but I hadn’t realised how bad a mistake it was. Now why would Sophia-Anna be having one of her Sheriff’s, or is it all of them, selling her blood to humans? It gives her connections to a lot of humans but as far as I was aware it just lets vampires sense the human’s whereabouts and emotions, and even then bottled V is different from taking it from the vampire itself – weaker or affecting humans harder. Plus that will be a lot of humans cluttering up her head. I don’t see the reason for wanting this on her part.
• Sophie-Anne says that Eric is ‘the strongest and oldest vampire in (her) Queendom’ – does that include Sophie-Anne herself?
• Hadley hearing everything that Eric and Sophie-Anne had to say is interesting because at some point Sookie and her have to meet up again, and when they do Hadley will have all sorts of things to tell her cousin. I wonder what she thinks about her cousin apparently not being human. Does this surprise her? I notice that Bill doesn’t say anything to Sookie about Hadley, even after everything had finally died down, which is exactly what I thought he’d do. Sigh. That is going to come back to bite him.
• “Folklore we’ve accumulated over the centuries” which means that vampires higher up share knowledge, perhaps even once a vampire becomes queen/king they’re given access to the vampire’s collected knowledge? Is there a repository for it?
• I was sure that Maryann would be so attracted to Sookie’s otherness that she would choose her over Sam as a vessel.
• Sookie’s maid-of-honour dress was pretty and looked nice on her. I was also surprised by have nice grams wedding dress was – it was older but not so out of style or ugly like I was expecting. Maryann looked gorgeous. Though most of that was definitely her hair – it was stunning.
• I was surprised that Sookie didn’t immediately offer Bill her blood to replenish the blood Sam took. Bill was clearly weak but instead she sends him off to deal with Maryann’s body. She didn’t even suggest he go back to his place first and get a drink.
• “You have a family. We’re family.” – Sookie. I love that when Tara came stumbling down the path Sookie left Bill’s side to immediately take Tara into her arms. And then she continued to hold her as she took charge of the situation and began to order everyone around (which is awesome). I loved her repeating once again, in even clearer terms, that Tara and her are family.
• Bill and Jessica were adorable this episode. It almost feels like they’re beginning to actually work at being a family.
• “It wasn’t you. You had no free will.” – Sookie. Oh, Sookie. This was obviously never going to work out well. She should have listened to what Lafayette told her – some things it’s better not to know. It seemed as if she wasn’t going to help Eggs remember but then she made the mistake of listening to what he was thinking and what he was thinking was exactly perfect to get to her and make her want to help him – he asked her for help, pleaded for it (Sookie will help anyone), and he thought ‘I don’t know who I am, I don’t know what I am’ and that is exactly what Sookie is feeling right now and so with those two things together there is no way she wouldn’t help. After all, if someone could give her answers she would leap at it.
Afterwards she tries to use logic to help him deal, she tries to absolve him of his horror and guilt but of course she can’t. I just can’t believe that she didn’t tell Tara what had happened. The rest of it was understandable, if clearly a bad idea before he’d even opened his mouth, but not telling Tara, not telling the person closest to him what he’d learned and the pain he was in – that’s not very forgivable. I couldn’t blame Tara if she blamed Sookie for a part in his death because she was a part of it – not mainly because she gave him back his memories but because she did try and get him help.
- Jason is such a fucking dumbass and ever since the beginning of the last episode when he started to go off on his stupid soldier/warrior headspace that he would end up doing something like this. I just didn’t realise that it would happen after all the craziness had passed. Jason’s actions here could maybe be understandable – Eggs definitely did appear to be threatening Andy with a knife but the thing to do in these circumstances is to call out a warning. Idiot.
- I feel so horrible for Tara. That girl needs something good in her life, something her own, and stat. Hopefully next season will give her that. I also felt horrible for Eggs, who was going crazy not knowing and then who went crazy with grief when he did know, and who just wanted someone to help him, to punish him like he felt he needed to be.
• I was pretty sure that Arlene was getting flashbacks when Tara fell beside Eggs body crying. She of them all understand Tara’s position best even if she didn’t get to have that moment with Rene’s body. I was going to say that our suriviving waitresses were two for three in being in love with serial killers but that actually isn’t true – they’re three for three because vampire Bill is the largest killer of them all.
• I loved that Arlene told her kids that Rene went on vacation, trying to make sure they don’t know the horrible truth, but kids aren’t what adults think they are. Their matter-of-fact “Yup, I’m pretty sure he’s dead.” was amusing.
For a finale this was very... low key. It felt more like the wrapping up of loose ends then the climax/conclusion to a series long mystery that began at the end of the previous season. It did not feel like a finale. To be honest it was a bit disappointing
• For me the most interesting parts of this episode were learning more about Sookie, not that we learned a lot. But what happened between Sookie and Maryann was interesting and gave hints, and the discussion between Eric and Sophie-Anne has implications that are even more intriguing. First, both agree that Sookie isn’t human, though not entirely on how much she’s not. This is interesting because I have been thinking of Sookie as... well, like a human psychic. I love the idea of her being something other. With Maryann I got the sense the first time I watched that she didn’t consider Sookie human at all (anymore than she would herself). She tells Sookie “You’re definitely beyond human.” This is because – “I live off human energy and yours I can’t channel.” She acknowledges that there are others like that – shifters – is the implication, but we know that shifters can become hers, her familiars, as seen by Daphne, and we’ve seen that she does have power over them. I assume weres are similar. We don’t know about her affect on vampires – we don’t see her take over Bill but then she never actually tries. She certainly knows what he is from the start and she also knows that her blood will poison him. Can she do something to vampire’s like she does to shifters? But then you’d think she’d have used that, Bill, against Sookie. In any case, Sookie is definitely less human that shifters because Maryann had no power over her. Then we get this discussion between Eric and Sophie-Anne:
Sophie-Anne: You know I think he is monogamous with his human.
Eric: He is in love with her, yes.
Sophie-Anne: Well, of course he would be with her. You probably are too.
Eric: I do not love humans.
Sophie-Anne: She is not entirely human. (pause) Have you tasted her?
Eric: Sadly, no.
Sophie-Anne: Don’t. Ever. One vampire falling in love is bad enough.
First, to get it out of the way, you have Sophie-Anne calling Sookie ‘not entirely’ human which implies she is human in some part. This is a bit different from the conclusion I got from Maryann (as stated above). So which is it?
Second, Sophie-Anne knows what Sookie is! This implies to me that those vampires at the top of the vampire hierarchy know about Sookie’s kind. I can’t wait to learn more about this. Do they keep Sookie’s kind in their courts, or are they avoided like the maenads? Obviously the higher vampires, higher in rank, are secretive about Sookie’s species because Eric didn’t and doesn’t know what she is.
Third, and the most important implication here, are things between Sophie-Anne’s words. ‘Of course’ Bill would love Sookie, and her assumption that Eric loves her too, and then at the end forbidding Eric to ever taste her and the implication in all of that – that vampires are drawn to Sookie’s kind, that they can’t help themselves... that their blood draws vampires in even more and makes them fall in love. Huh. Sophie-Anne was not surprised that Bill was in love with Sookie, in fact it was only to be expected, and that Eric who also spent time with her would also be under her spell. And that if he wasn’t in love with her then it was only because he hadn’t drunk her blood, and if he did ever do that he would fall in love with her.
I think at this point all worry about the Sookie/Bill relationship has been for Sookie but I’m kind of wondering if we shouldn’t have been worrying for Bill as well. In 2x09 Eric tricks Sookie into ingesting her blood and then we, and her, learn that the bond when doing that is much more potent than we knew; binding the two together. Now we’ve learned, kind of, that Sookie’s blood has its own properties. Oh I really want to know what those are. We know she tastes different (her kind do) from humans. Now I find myself wondering what effects it would have on vampires.
I’ve actually been thinking that things have been moving too fast for Sookie and Bill but then brushed it off because everything has been moving too fast. Hell, in two seasons something like only two or three months have passed. How would that really be enough time for anyone to fall in love and yet most/all the relationships have had their entirety in these two months – Bill/Sookie – but also Tara/Eggs, Terry/Arlene, Jason/Amy... everyone seemed to fall in love with someone the first week they meet them. But this is a problem with the format of the series. We really need bigger lapses between episodes. With this new information about Sookie it at least gives more reason to why she and Bill fell so quickly for each other at least. Their loneliness, her gift, the silence he gives her, the compassion and trust she gives him, his blood bonding them and making him even more attractive to her, and now her blood making her more attractive to him.
• I wonder if, or perhaps how long, Eric will listen to Sophie-Anne’s order not to drink Sookie’s blood?
• I was not at all expecting Bill to propose to Sookie. I mean it’s been two months since they’ve met! For someone who is immortal he sure moves fast. I couldn’t help but feel like he was asking her to marry him in order to solidify his claim on her against Eric (and any other vampire). It was actually my first thought when he asked her. But – he does love her, and she loves him. I think I’ll be really surprised if it actually happens.
• “I’ve never felt anything like it. It was like nature was shooting out from your fingertips.” – Maryann. Hmm.
• I really thought that Sookie would end up using her new glowy hand ability to defeat or banish Maryann but we didn’t get anything like that. When Sookie tried she couldn’t make herself do it again and then when it did happen it was when she pushed over Maryann’s offering. It doesn’t seem to be something dangerous. I can’t wait to learn more about it. And everything else she might be able to do. I loved that we got a flashback to Mack and the chain – it wasn’t forgotten! Hopefully that means that we’ll be seeing something similar next season.
• I’m not actually happy with how they dealt with Maryann. I wish instead of being killed, though I knew it was coming after Sophie-Anne brought up a way to potentially do it, they’d just found a way to banish her, or perhaps trick her into believing her ritual didn’t work so that she ended up leaving herself, disappointed.
• Sam and Bill’s plan was so, so bad. Both the other victims of Maryann’s had their hearts carved out of their chest – if she’d continued as she’d started and had his heart carved out there would have been nothing Bill could have done for him, and there was no indication that she wouldn’t be carving his heart out too. They knew this! Stupid plan.
• It was nice to see some of Eric’s grief over Godric’s death.
• I thought Bill had made a mistake when he threatened Eric with exposure in the previous episode, and the fact that he did it right outside the Queen’s front door seemed pretty stupid, but I hadn’t realised how bad a mistake it was. Now why would Sophia-Anna be having one of her Sheriff’s, or is it all of them, selling her blood to humans? It gives her connections to a lot of humans but as far as I was aware it just lets vampires sense the human’s whereabouts and emotions, and even then bottled V is different from taking it from the vampire itself – weaker or affecting humans harder. Plus that will be a lot of humans cluttering up her head. I don’t see the reason for wanting this on her part.
• Sophie-Anne says that Eric is ‘the strongest and oldest vampire in (her) Queendom’ – does that include Sophie-Anne herself?
• Hadley hearing everything that Eric and Sophie-Anne had to say is interesting because at some point Sookie and her have to meet up again, and when they do Hadley will have all sorts of things to tell her cousin. I wonder what she thinks about her cousin apparently not being human. Does this surprise her? I notice that Bill doesn’t say anything to Sookie about Hadley, even after everything had finally died down, which is exactly what I thought he’d do. Sigh. That is going to come back to bite him.
• “Folklore we’ve accumulated over the centuries” which means that vampires higher up share knowledge, perhaps even once a vampire becomes queen/king they’re given access to the vampire’s collected knowledge? Is there a repository for it?
• I was sure that Maryann would be so attracted to Sookie’s otherness that she would choose her over Sam as a vessel.
• Sookie’s maid-of-honour dress was pretty and looked nice on her. I was also surprised by have nice grams wedding dress was – it was older but not so out of style or ugly like I was expecting. Maryann looked gorgeous. Though most of that was definitely her hair – it was stunning.
• I was surprised that Sookie didn’t immediately offer Bill her blood to replenish the blood Sam took. Bill was clearly weak but instead she sends him off to deal with Maryann’s body. She didn’t even suggest he go back to his place first and get a drink.
• “You have a family. We’re family.” – Sookie. I love that when Tara came stumbling down the path Sookie left Bill’s side to immediately take Tara into her arms. And then she continued to hold her as she took charge of the situation and began to order everyone around (which is awesome). I loved her repeating once again, in even clearer terms, that Tara and her are family.
• Bill and Jessica were adorable this episode. It almost feels like they’re beginning to actually work at being a family.
• “It wasn’t you. You had no free will.” – Sookie. Oh, Sookie. This was obviously never going to work out well. She should have listened to what Lafayette told her – some things it’s better not to know. It seemed as if she wasn’t going to help Eggs remember but then she made the mistake of listening to what he was thinking and what he was thinking was exactly perfect to get to her and make her want to help him – he asked her for help, pleaded for it (Sookie will help anyone), and he thought ‘I don’t know who I am, I don’t know what I am’ and that is exactly what Sookie is feeling right now and so with those two things together there is no way she wouldn’t help. After all, if someone could give her answers she would leap at it.
Afterwards she tries to use logic to help him deal, she tries to absolve him of his horror and guilt but of course she can’t. I just can’t believe that she didn’t tell Tara what had happened. The rest of it was understandable, if clearly a bad idea before he’d even opened his mouth, but not telling Tara, not telling the person closest to him what he’d learned and the pain he was in – that’s not very forgivable. I couldn’t blame Tara if she blamed Sookie for a part in his death because she was a part of it – not mainly because she gave him back his memories but because she did try and get him help.
- Jason is such a fucking dumbass and ever since the beginning of the last episode when he started to go off on his stupid soldier/warrior headspace that he would end up doing something like this. I just didn’t realise that it would happen after all the craziness had passed. Jason’s actions here could maybe be understandable – Eggs definitely did appear to be threatening Andy with a knife but the thing to do in these circumstances is to call out a warning. Idiot.
- I feel so horrible for Tara. That girl needs something good in her life, something her own, and stat. Hopefully next season will give her that. I also felt horrible for Eggs, who was going crazy not knowing and then who went crazy with grief when he did know, and who just wanted someone to help him, to punish him like he felt he needed to be.
• I was pretty sure that Arlene was getting flashbacks when Tara fell beside Eggs body crying. She of them all understand Tara’s position best even if she didn’t get to have that moment with Rene’s body. I was going to say that our suriviving waitresses were two for three in being in love with serial killers but that actually isn’t true – they’re three for three because vampire Bill is the largest killer of them all.
• I loved that Arlene told her kids that Rene went on vacation, trying to make sure they don’t know the horrible truth, but kids aren’t what adults think they are. Their matter-of-fact “Yup, I’m pretty sure he’s dead.” was amusing.
